Staff become bosses by buying business

Two young employees at a specialist sign centre in Harrogate are celebrating after becoming the bosses.

Product design graduates Marc Squires, 31, and Kevin Masheder, 25, bought the Harrogate franchise of Signarama following the retirement of Michael Webster, who opened the visual communications centre 15 years ago.

Mr Squires said: “Kev and I work well together and it made sense for us to pool our resources to buy the company.

“We know what a good business this is because we have seen the success for ourselves, so when Michael told us he was retiring and putting the company up for sale it was too good an opportunity to miss.”

The Signarama UK business support team has been working with the new owners to help them transition from workers to bosses, and the pair have also been to the company’s global headquarters in Florida for an intensive two-week training course.

Since taking over the pair have invested in refurbishing the premises, and launching a major marketing campaign.